Coffee Cake with Meringue

This is a twist on a classic coffee and walnut cake. It has a coffee meringue top and a drizzle of coffee icing and is definitely one for coffee lovers. I used Camp Coffee essence in the cake and filling which really added to the coffee flavour. It's a recipe that I've adapted slightly from BBC Good Food. My colleague's reaction to this cake was "I've died and gone to heaven and I won't be coming back!" It's a really good way of using up leftover egg whites which I had plenty of as I made a lot of custard recently for an upcoming post.

 adding coffee and walnuts to the meringue 

 adding some walnuts to the cake batter 

 meringue topped cake, normal cake 

 place  1 cake on a cake board/serving plate 

 add the coffee filling 

 place the meringue topped cake on top and drizzle with coffee icing 

 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food 

For the cake
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

75 walnuts

2 tablespoon coffee essence 

2 teaspoon coffee mixture

For the meringue topping
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
3 tsp instant coffee granules mixed with 3 tablespoon boiling water (coffee mixture)
25g chopped walnuts

For the filling

100g butter
200g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon coffee essence 

1 teaspoon coffee mixture 

For the drizzle icing
3 -6  tbsp icing sugar depending on consistency

Coffee mixture 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Grease and line 2  20cm sandwich tins.
• Firstly make the meringue by whisking the egg whites until stiff.
• Gradually add in the sugar and continue whisking.
• Make the coffee mixture by dissolving 3 teaspoons of instant coffee granules in 3 tablespoon of boiling water.
• Gently fold in walnuts and 1 teaspoon of coffee mixture into the meringue. Set aside.
• Next make the cake mixture by creaming butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
• Add in the eggs then fold in the flour and baking powder.
• Add 2 teaspoons of coffee mixture and 2 tablespoons of coffee essence. 
• Gently fold in the nuts. 
• Divide the cake mixture between the 2 tins, putting more mixture in one than the other.
• Spread the meringue on top of the tin containing less cake mixture.
• Bake the plain sponge for 20-22 mins until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Continue baking the meringue topped sponge for a further 40-42 minutes.
• Allow cakes to cool completely in their tins. 
• Now make the coffee filling by beating butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Gradually add in the coffee essence and coffee mixture. 
• Place the plain cake on a cake board or serving tray. Spread the coffee filling evenly and then gently place the meringue topped cake on top.
• Add 3-6 tablespoons of icing sugar to the remaining coffee mixture and stir to mix well (you may need more icing sugar depending on consistency) 
• Drizzle the icing over the top. 

Nigella Nutella Cake

Huge apologies to all my readers for the lack of blogging recently. I went to America (Florida and Washington which was amazing) then had a very hectic last 10 days at work and changed jobs this week. I've not really had time to bake much less blog even though I have quite a few posts in the draft folder. 

I've decided to share with you the cake I made for my leaving tea party at work. I felt so touched by the kind words and was extremely impressed that my colleagues made the effort to bake cakes for me as I'm always baking for them! Apparently store bought was not going to be good enough for me so there was an email going round asking for homemade cakes and I was treated to a lovely chocolate cake, apple cake, marmalade cake and homemade scones. Thank you so much!! 

Of course I couldn't resist baking one last time even though I was up half the night! I made 2 big cakes and this is one of them - a Nigella Nutella Cake. Nigella says it's one of the easiest cakes to make and the most delicious and that her household is addicted to it. I totally agree as it was delicious and the first cake to be finished amongst all the many delicious cakes on display! 

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co-hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes as the letter this month is N for Nigella Nutella cake. To the AlphaBakers last month - I'm sorry I've not had time to visit your blogs and see your delicious P entries but I promise I will get to them in the next week or so! My mouth was watering from what I've seen on the roundup so I look forward to reading each entry in detail. 

 'nutty' cake 

 roasted hazelnuts 

 fold in egg whites 

 a little burnt but no one will notice after it's covered in ganache and fruits! 

 slightly uneven after the cake cooled. I initially wanted to add smarties on top but decided fresh fruit would balance out the chocolate

 the side view is much better!! 

Recipe available on Nigella's website 

The only changes I made was to omit the rum (as it was for work) and to use roasted chopped hazelnuts instead of ground hazelnuts to increase the nutty taste and texture. 

Hi Hat Marshmallow Cupcakes

This month's letter for AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and co-hosted by myself on alternate months is.... "H". H really is Hard and initially all I could think of was honey, honeycomb and hazelnuts, all of which I like. However, I wanted to push the boat out this month as that's part of the fun of these challenges. So far I've entered Hamburger cupcakes and Hummingbird cupcakes and now I present to you.... Hi Hat Marshmallow Cupcakes!! I was really pleased when I came across these in my new book Amazing Cupcakes with Lola. I've seen these mostly on American blogs previously and have always wanted to try making them as they look so cute. The recipe is easy to follow and the cupcakes taste great! The chocolate cupcake is moist and not too sweet (I did reduce the sugar amount) and the soft, light marshmallow frosting complements the chocolate cake. The chocolate coating on top is of course the icing on the cake :) 

I'm also entering these beauties to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

And to Cupcake Tuesday hosted by Liz from Hoosier Homemade

And to My Sweet Party hosted by Johanna from Me and My Sweets.  The theme for this month is Chocolate so these are perfect as they are extremely chocolatey. 

 Make chocolate cupcake batter 

 whip egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and water until foamy... 

 ...then whisk over a pan of simmering water until you get stiff peaks like this. 

 ready to frost? 

 start with one outer circle 

 add another layer on top 

 if you can, add yet another layer - you want to frost as high as possible! 

 not too bad

 don't look too closely especially the back row!! 

 I used a tall, deep glass to dip the cupcakes in

 bit messy but yummy! 

 some disasters along the way...the frosting fell off into the chocolate coating! :( 

 cross section 

Recipe from Making Cupcakes with Lola by Victoria Jossel & Romy Lewis, photography by Kate Whitaker. Published by Ryland Peters & Small - reproduced with kind permission from the publisher (I've edited the method section slightly in my own words)

Makes 12 cupcakes 

For the cake

100g dark chocolate

175g butter 

225g  caster sugar (I used 180g)

4 eggs

100g self raising flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch of salt

For the easy marshmallow frosting

180g caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3 egg whites

60ml water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate coating

350g milk chocolate (I used dark as I didn't have enough milk)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes. 
• Beat the mixture with an electric hand mixer. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. 
• Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and beat until blended. 
• Divide the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and cooked. 

• To make the frosting, whisk the egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar and 60ml water in a large heat proof bowl until foamy as shown in the picture above. 
• Bring a small saucepan of water to a gentle simmer and set the bowl on the pan.
• Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.
• Remove from the heat, beat in the vanilla extract and continue beating until the frosting is nice and thick. 
• Transfer to a piping bag with a plain round nozzle.
• Pipe the frosting on the cupcakes as shown.
• I put my cupcakes in the freezer at this point to help the frosting set.

• Make the chocolate coating by melting the chocolate and vegetable oil in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. 
• Transfer to a small, deep bowl or tall, wide glass and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
• Holding each cupcake by the base, dip the marshmallow spiral into the cooled, melted chocolate to entirely coat the spiral.
• (Note: if the chocolate is too hot, it melts the marshmallow frosting and I personally think chilling the cupcakes for 10-15 minutes helped!)
• Allow the cupcakes to set at room temperature before serving. 

Rose and Strawberry Kisses

I'm sure you've noticed that I participate in a lot of baking/blogging challenges. Sometimes I have a recipe that I want to make that fits and other times I create a recipe specifically for the challenge. This is a creation recipe for 2 challenges - one an old favourite and another a brand new challenge.

Firstly, Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and co-hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked set a lovely FLORAL theme for May. As Karen's birthday is in May, she asked us to send in something with floral flavours and flowers. Happpy (belated) birthday Karen - I hope you enjoy these :) 

Secondly, a new challenge I discovered which is the Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  It's a  monthly party where everyone takes the same two assigned ingredients and lets their imaginations run wild.  This month the two ingredients are strawberries and cream.

So I got to thinking about what to make for each of these challenges and then came up with something that would fit both. The inspiration comes from these lemon meringue kisses I made for a friend's birthday last year. I decided to make Rose & Strawberry Kisses which is floral and contains strawberries and cream! 

Colour co-ordinated ingredients :) I found this lovely concentrated Rose culinary essence at an Asian grocery store - it is AMAZING!! I would highly recommend this over rose water (which is what you can buy at a supermarket).  The colour and flavour is intense and it tastes great! You can really smell and taste the rose. I'm so glad I found this (amongst other things)

 adding the rose essence to the meringue - love the pink colour

 looks slighly orange-y but I'm sure it's the lighting, I promise it's pink! 

 Pipe meringue 'kisses' 

 Chop up fresh strawberries

 Fold into freshly whipped cream

 Rose & Strawberry Kisses :) 

 I made a few large meringues so I could have a Royal Rose Eton Mess - crushed meringue with strawberries and cream, fresh strawberries topped with a 'strawberry crown' I won't lie... I ate the whole bowl myself (in 2 sittings) 

 view from the top 

For the meringue shells (I made a double recipe which yielded 76 stars or 38 kisses and 3 large meringues for my eton mess)

This is for a SINGLE recipe which makes ~40 stars or 20 kisses

2 egg whites

pinch of salt

150g caster sugar

2 teaspoons rose essence

optional : drop of pink food colouring

• Preheat oven to 90C. 
• Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper. 
• Whisk egg whites in an electric mixer until foamy.
• Add salt and increase speed to medium-high.
• Slowly sprinkle in the sugar.
• Continue to beat eggs until they become thick, glossy and hold stiff peaks.
• Add the rose essence and a drop of pink food colouring.
• Spoon into piping bag.
• Pipe little stars as shown using a star tip onto the baking sheets. 
• Using the back of a spoon, flatten out half of the stars, making them as flat as possible (for the bottom) but not necessarily making them larger. 
• Bake for 2 hours until they are no longer sticky. 
• Store in an airtight container.

For the filling

• Finely chop a bowl of fresh strawberries that have been washed and hulled.
• Whip a carton of whipping cream or double cream until firm.
• Stir the strawberries into the cream.

To assemble

• Place 1 teaspoon of strawberries & cream filling on a 'flat' star and top with another similar sized star. 
• Serve immediately if possible.